JOHN TAYLOR

Scottish born artist studied Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee the Royal College of Art, London. Originally interested in painting and illustration now full time fine art photographer. Started fine art book publishing company 2010. Latest book 'Angels In The Undergrowth' available on Amazon and all good bookshops. Has exhibited in many places including Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of London, Tate Britain, Barbican Art Gallery, National Art Galleries, Scotland and venues in Europe and USA.

Currently working on three publications of his photography.

Some things he has said.

'An artist consumes the world and regurgitates it in a variety of ways. Sometimes these regurgitations are inscrutable, sometimes decipherable. Sometimes they can touch your soul and take on longevity because of their specialness, mostly they are uninspirational and wither away. Artists who do not take risks are not really artists, a true artist is prepared to risk failure and opprobrium'

'Documentary photography increasingly leaves me cold. So much of it does not document anything as well as it could. Mostly its about indulgent photographic careerism. The subject ( usually carefully chosen for its degree of sexiness ) increasingly comes a poor second to the photographer and his ego.'

"You can analyse a glass of water and you're left with a lot of chemical components but nothing you can drink' (Haldane)". Over theorisation can prevent many people from making images as they get confused and creatively constipated, especially those who have undertaken formal art education. I used to have that problem but eventually recovered from my educational experience and realised that aesthetic theoretical over-analysis was crippling my ability to produce images. Now I am liberated and simply follow my creative instincts leaving tedious analytic posturing for others.'

'So much of current photography is about capturing 'the big shot', 'the knockout', 'the epic'. Overworked in digital editing, skies becomes over dramatic, colour saturation over applied, shadows impossibly open, aerial perspective flattened. I want to see the quiet corners of housing estates, the inside of a dusty cupboard, the anonymous quiet moments photographers ignore, the minutae, the ordinary, the flat, the grey. What one is gets today is an airbrushed lush hyper-real sterile souless concoction. This is the photograph in the digital age.'